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New state offensive in EPA pollution battle

Delaware intends to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over what state officials say is its failure to regulate air pollution that drifts from smokestacks in West Virginia and Pennsylvania eastward into the First State.

New state offensive in EPA pollution battle

Daniel, a 16-year-old St. Elizabeth High School student, describes what severe asthma sufferers endure in Delaware.
Karl Baker/THE NEWS JOURNAL

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The factories of Marcus Hook, Pa., just north of the Delaware border are shown on Aug. 3. Delaware environmental officials say the state gets 90 percent of its air pollutants from other states.(Photo: GARY EMEIGH/SPECIAL TO THE NEWS JOURNAL)Buy Photo

Delaware intends to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over what state officials say is its failure to regulate the air pollution that drifts from smokestacks in West Virginia and Pennsylvania eastward into the First State.

The state is demanding that federal regulators require power plants in those upwind states to run "existing pollution control equipment when the plants are in operation."

On Tuesday, state officials said they will send four Notice of Intent to Sue letters to the federal agency, announcing forthcoming legal action.

“The Clean Air Act entitles Delaware to relief from upwind pollution and the remedy we are seeking is reasonable and within EPA’s authority and responsibility,” Governor John Carney said in a statement. “Our air quality is significantly impacted by pollution traveling downwind from other states."

A byproduct of emissions from the burning of coal and other fossil fuels, ozone can spark dangerous reactions in the lungs of people with asthma.

The "problematic ozone is not of Delaware’s doing" state environmental regulators insisted in 2016.

They argue that states such as Pennsylvania, with its numerous coal-fired power plants, bombard the air with too many pollutants that transform into ozone when hit by sunlight and then drift into the First State.

While the First State does lie in the path of prevailing winds that pass over many of the country’s largest producers of ozone-causing greenhouse gases, Delaware – for its size – also is an outsize emitter of greenhouse gases on its own.

Nevertheless, in 2016, Delaware petitioned the EPA to enforce ozone pollution limits in Pennsylvania and elsewhere after upwind states had requested additional time to comply with a 2008 national ozone standard.

Tuesday's announcement of a coming lawsuit is the next step after those past efforts to bind federal regulators to strict Clean Air Act interpretations did not solve the pollution problems.

Yet, with an EPA that has pledged to become more accommodating to industry – particularly to coal-fired power plants – a negotiated solution likely face greater obstacles than in the past.

In Tuesday's statement, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control Secretary Shawn Garvin said Delaware also is working with its counterparts in neighboring states to limit air pollution.

“The Department has pursued – and will continue to pursue – voluntary and collaborative efforts with partner states to ensure upwind power plants meet the same stringent standards which Delaware is required to meet,” he said.

Contact Karl Baker at kbaker@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2329. Follow him on Twitter @kbaker6.